Dragonmarked Ascension War

Close the door! Were you raised in Sharn?

29

OCT/13

The session starts with a trial before the Brelish parliament in Wroat in closed session. It was during the course of trial that Prescott shows himself as a prosecutor, revealing that he was working as an agent of the Crown, employing the changeling agent to find those guilty of conspiracy to overthrow the now murdered king. Long and short, the crew was essentially caught dead to rights. However, due to their inherent power, the true motives and corruption of parliament, and the deal struck by Xiao Leng to remove surviving heirs to consolidate parliament power, the decision of the Consul was actually to deputize rather than convict the party of any wrongdoing. While Prince Bortan was likely not acting alone, he was able to receive full blame for the assassination.

The next stop was to Sharn, where the group might have cause to spend their earnings and begin to prepare for the troubles ahead. The first stop through this imposing city of towers was the family estate of Samson Belford, where he got to see the dilapidated estate as a sign that his parents were murdered, and his irresponsible brother running the inheritance into the ground. A dramatic event at the airship casino the Wyldcard, and he let his brother be taken in by the syndicate boss LaFleur for punishment of his gambling debts, and the party negotiated a means of returning the property to Samson.

After some standard resupplying, the crew heard about the Crowley Auction House. They arrived in full pageantry to a display of exotic and expensive items for sale. Some socializing and bidding later, with some underhanded bidding tactics, the group made off with some valuable items, while watching others go to different hands. Quirina decided to stalk a Shadow Marches warlord to a local embassy, where she pretended to seduce him before murdering him horribly and looting his suites of all she could carry. Samson conducted some transmutation rituals to infuse spell powers into his form permanently. Alari stayed behind to socialize at the auction house.

Later that night, as Alari bonded with her eidolon, and Samson flew around the city to test his newfound power, a shadow demon attempted to assassinate Quirina in her sleep. It was the first foe she has ever had to face where feeling entirely powerless to stop it. The group held together, fleeing and fighting the shadowy beast, delaying until Samson could return. Upon finding Feundin’s body desiccated, Samson got the hint that something was up, flying to back up the group and help them finish the shadow demon. Quirina began to realize, that just because Bast removed the curse mechanism that transports her soul to hell upon death, that the fiends will still resort to taking it there themselves. Soon after his ritual, Samson was able to spot the pattern of magic as belonging to the Daughters of Sora Kell, igniting his wrath upon learning who was responsible for the death of his parents.

The party spent 2 weeks building resources in various ways: Doing favors with LaFleur to smooth over his business by murdering rivals, selling spellcasting and conjured labor services, establishing a magitech enterprise, and in an effort to develop social influence within the city of Sharn, a party was held to herald the Belford’s return to prominence. A party of grand trappings was planned.

When the party took place, it served its purpose to draw the nobility of the city into ever more passionate and depraved pursuits throughout the night. During this occasion, Alari bonded with the syndicate boss LaFleur, Samson rooted out aberrant-marked lurkers crashing his party, narrowly preventing a disaster as monstrous agents of Kyrzin the Plaguelord were dispatched just in time to prevent an outbreak. Quirina got closer to a Mr. Crowley, the auction house chairman, only to discover that he is the Heir of an Aberrant Dragonmark belonging to one of the 6 Lords of Madness. He has apparently learned to control the manifestation through a voodoo ritual performed by ‘The Trickster,’ a roaming, enigmatic figure in Shadow Marches folklore. They decided to take Crowley along under close scrutiny.

Using her dragonmark powers, Quirina learned that an item she had failed to bid on at the auction house had in fact been picked up by the Trickster himself, who was seen using the box to make gates in the shadow realm glow, and even to stir the great titan Promethos slumbering within the central crystal in the Palace of Mourning. It was then that the Trickster revealed his knowledge of her spying, and promised to deliver Pandora’s box to the group should they assemble all 12 members and meet in the Palace of Mourning once more. The final revelation of the session was when Crowley mentioned the sacrifice of an entire invading demon horde for his mark to manifest, that the group put it together: The Mournland occurred as the cost to manifest their collective powers and awakenings, the energies of an annihilated country pulsed to surge through them.